Hardware providers such as Red-M, Axis, A Brand New World are developing platform software and applications. However, their solutions are admittedly designed to showcase the deployment of their hardware solution in public venues and not to be launched on the market
The way in which the solutions of most of the hardware providers today work in distributing content is through an ordinary WEB-browser. Most commonly, when entering an area with a public WLAN the operator pushes, through the browser of the user's device, a homepage shown on the monitor of said device. Then the network of the respective operator or provider is accessed by logging in thereto by entering a user name and a password. Then, the user can, using his device, browse among the services that are available at the site. This allows the user to view different homepages and to use simple interactive services, having user parts in the shape of applets written in the programming language JAVA. There are many problems associated with this method The services offered are limited to applets that are very simple programs run through the JAVA interpreting program of the WEB-browser. Today, it is not even possible to run JAVA-applets on WEB-browsers designed for used with PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) though this may be possible in the future.
In the published British patent application No. 2 327 564 a system for wirelessly distributing locally adapted information to mobile units is disclosed. The system comprises a wireless network, a plurality of base stations connected to the network and to the Internet, a plurality of server computer systems also connected to the Internet and geographically distributed totters. Each transmitter continuously issues signals containing the Internet address of a server system that contains the information associated with the area in which where the transmitter is located, each transmitter issuing a different Internet address. These signals can be received only by mobile units staying in the neighborhood of the respective transmitter. The units then automatically receive the home page indicated by the Internet address and thereby obtain information that is associated with the geographical area where the transmitter is located.
In the published British patent application No. 2 352 588 distribution of information is disclosed, the information associated with special items of interest. Beacons issue wirelessly code signals that can comprise Internet addresses, the issued signals having a limited coverage. A mobile unit in the vicinity of a beacon receives such a code signal and transmits it wirelessly, in a network such as Bluetooth, UMMS or a LAN, to a base station that through a server is connected to e.g. the Internet The base station then gets the home page associated with the address and sends it to the mobile unit in which the home page is shown on the display.